AYUSH doctors to go on hunger strike

BANGALORE: Demanding regularisation of services and better pay, nearly 721 doctors working under the Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) threatened to go on an indefinite hunger strike if government overlooks their demands.Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Dr Manju Naik, President, Karnataka Ayush Medical Officers Welfare Organisation said that all the members of the organisation are working on contract basis.Without any monetary benefits, the doctors are working under the National Rural Health Mission(NRHM) scheme, in various primary health centres in remote rural areas for the last six years. We are just entitled to `11,300 which makes it difficult for us to make ends meet.We are even deprived of the basic facilities and there is no government support for us. Compared to other states like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, we are offered very less salary, he added. The members also maintained that their future is in the dark once the time frame of the NRHM scheme in the state gets over in March 2012.